Industry News: Rumorpile: Lucid Motors Had Takeover Talks With Ford

[William Maley]

Electric car startup Lucid Motors has been in process of trying to raise extra cash to move forward with the development of their first model, the Air and a factory in Arizona. But Bloomberg has learned from sources at the startup that Lucid reached out to Ford about a possible sale. Reportedly, Ford said they are not looking for a deal at the moment. Currently, the blue oval is undergoing a 100-day review by new CEO Jim Hackett. Interestingly, a source went on to say that Ford isn't ruling out a deal down the road.

For the time being, Lucid has called in Morgan Stanley to help with raising the extra funds.

“We don’t have the money in place. That’s why we need to secure Series D,” said Lucid Motors' Chief Technology Officer Peter Rawlinson to Bloomberg back in April.

“It would be irresponsible to start moving earth or start anything until we have a financial runway to execute that professionally and with absolute integrity.”

When asked about how the investments were going this month, Rawlinson said the company is "thrilled with the response from investors." He declined to comment on the scale of investments and the possible meeting with Ford. A Ford spokeswoman said "We don't comment on speculation."

Source: Bloomberg

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[G. David Felt]

Interesting to read when you see the number of beta auto's being tested in the US and Germany. They clearly got a bunch of money in the beginning, but now based on the last few stories, I have to think someone pulled out funding for them to freeze everything and now have to search for more capital. Bet this is owned in the next 12-18 months by China or some investment group.

[riviera74]

My $$$$ is on China.  They are still in a buying spree.